Thursday, July 22, 2010

Alright, so after much poking and prodding by Sarah and Tatiana…and then reading something about tears (see entry below), I have decided to make my first contribution to the blog. Bear with me.

So last week, while sitting at my job in the Science Library and doing my daily tasks (twiddling my thumbs, watching an episode of Felicity, spinning in the chair, etc.), a bored Public Safety officer strolled up to the counter and stared at me until I finally agreed to look up and make conversation. After talking about random things like the weather, Lebron James, Pattie Palace, and how he was a court martial (and not an employee at Marshalls like I originally thought he said), we somehow came upon the topic of how I was a Bio major that was working in a lab this summer. Upon hearing that, the excitement could not have been more evident on his face.

Excited Public Safety Officer: Do you guys work with mice?

Me: No, we work with yeast.

Until I said that of course.

Even so, he continued to go on and on about how he watched something on television that showed scientists growing a human ear on a mouse, and how crazy and exciting the idea was, and how amazed he was, and how he never thought such a thing was possible….and so on and so

forth. And of course, being in the field that I am, I could not help but not only feel the same excitement as the officer, but also the urge to learn more about what he was talking about (see here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1949073.stm).

But in addition to this, the conversation with the officer had me thinking. I could care less about math or history. I couldn’t initiate a conversation with anyone on a topic of interest in economics, philosophy, or religion. But everyone…yes everyone, loves at least some aspect of science.

Even if it’s just Bill Nye the Science Guy, because everyone loves him too.